Before I begin, I want to give a shot out to those who serve in historical Biblical Scholarship, which has aided in my understanding of what I share here.

Acts is a sequel to Luke, and is believed to have been written by Luke as there is strong internal evidence. For example, Luke was written to an honorable and important  person known as Theophilus, to whom Luke refers to as, most excellent Theophilus, in his gospel (Luke 1:3).

In the introduction to the book of Acts, we see that this is a second edition written to the same person.

In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen.  ~ Acts 1:1-2

Within the book of Acts we have a time stamp that gives us a strong clue as to when it was written and it is found within the last chapter. The book of Acts ends with these two verses:

For two whole years Paul stayed there in his own rented house and welcomed all who came to see him. He proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ—with all boldness and without hindrance! ~ Acts 28:30-32

Did you notice the clue we have? If not, that’s OK because you will see it in a moment. Among the early church history recorded in Acts is Peter’s early years of ministry, and the documentation of Paul’s ministry.

Acts documents Paul (Saul’s) opposition to the gospel before his conversion. Acts then documents Paul’s conversion, his early years of preaching, his approval by the apostles, his miracles, signs and wonders, his relationships with ministry companions such as Barnabas, Aquila, Priscilla, Timothy, and Silas. Acts also documents Paul’s persecutions, his trials, his imprisonments, his being shipwreck, the physical beatings he endured, and the evolution of his ministry to the Gentiles, and so on.

The one thing that Acts does not cover is Paul’s death. Acts closes with Paul ministering freely from his own home. This is an important point because Luke is not slack on recording the deaths of prominent people. The death of Stephen and James (the brother of John) are a couple of examples.

In fact, Luke tells us in Acts about a time when Paul was stoned and left for dead, but Paul recovered. If the book of Acts had been written after the death of Paul, it would make no sense for Luke to document Paul’s ministry the way that he does and leave off the final years of his life and ministry.

That Acts closes with Paul still alive and ministering freely is a strong indicator that Acts was written during Paul’s lifetime and before his death.

The apostle Paul died approximately around AD 64, before the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70. Thus Acts was written before AD 64, possibly within the late fifties, which places the timing of the writing of the book of Acts within the first 30 years of church history after the resurrection of Jesus.

Since Acts is the sequel to Luke, we can be confident that Luke was likely written in the 50s at the latest. This would indicate that the timing of Luke’s gospel is most likely no later than somewhere within the first 20 – 25 years of church history.

It is believed that the gospel of Mark is the oldest of the four gospels, being the first to be written. This would mean that it was written before the book of Luke which was most likely written within the 50’s based on the internal timestamp within Acts.

If Luke was written within the 50’s, it is likely that Mark was written in the early 50’s or even the 40’s. It is commonly believed that Matthew was written before Luke, and that Matthew and Luke both draw their content from the book of Mark, both being an expansion of what is recorded in Mark’s gospel.

Jesus died and rose again in AD 33, so the timing of the writing of the book of Mark is likely somewhere between 15-25 years after his resurrection. With the internal timestamp given to us in Acts, we have strong evidence that Mark, Matthew, Luke, and Acts were all written within the first 30 years after the resurrection of Jesus.